


let's do it (let's fall in love)

by leapylion3



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Aftermath, Alternate Universe - World War II, Angst, Character Death, Developing Relationship, F/M, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Gunshot Wounds, Injury, Rehabilitation, Sacrifice, Violence, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-16
Updated: 2013-08-16
Packaged: 2017-12-23 15:31:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/928151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leapylion3/pseuds/leapylion3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ned has to cope with his brother's death, taking care of his younger siblings, his leg injury, and a budding romance with a pretty nurse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	let's do it (let's fall in love)

**Author's Note:**

> this was written really quickly so i might go back and clean it up/add more/etc

The gunshots rang loudly in his ears, and he stood frozen there for a few moments, registering what had just happened. The windows shattered, and he had just enough time to duck and bury his face in the crook of his elbow. He kept a hand on the pistol tucked into his belt and ran up the stairs, staying low. All he could think of was Brandon and the other troops upstairs, young lads, _good_ lads. He could feel his bicep throbbing, and when he looked down, there was a shard of glass lodged in his skin. That was the last thing on his mind, though.

“Brandon!” he shouted, fumbling for his gun.

“They started going out the back,” his older brother explained, crouching behind a splintered desk. His uniform was spattered with blood, and all Ned could do was hope that it wasn’t his. “The others, I mean. I let the younger ones go.” Brandon was nothing if not fiercely protective over his crew.

“Let’s get out of here,” Ned urged, tugging on Brandon’s arm. “Come on, before they blow the whole place up or-”

“I’m not going, Ned,” Brandon snapped, a cold fury on his face. “Not until all the others are out.” He pulled Ned down under the desk before a bullet could pierce the younger man’s skull. “You should go, before the truck leaves. You need to get on it.”

“I’m not going without you.” The other troops filed out of the building, shoulders hunched and weapons held tightly as they dashed out. There were not many casualties, at least, as Ned looked around. He could recognize Willam Dustin lying on the ground, blood trickling from the hole in his forehead. He was a good man, that one. It would be hell telling Will’s wife; he spoke of her so much.

“Ned, your stubbornness will get you killed one day, you know that? Get the hell out of here.” Plaster flew as the gunshots persisted, making Ned and Brandon cough. “Edmure’s hurt.” Brandon nodded to the other corner of the room, where the young redhead was cowering and clutching his arm. “Take him and _go_. And that’s an order.”

Ned swallowed thickly and nodded his head. He could not talk his way out of this one. Once Brandon made his decision, it was hard to get him to change his mind. “Yes, sir.” He saluted his captain, meekly ducking his head.

“Just leave me here,” Edmure groaned when Ned approached him. Ned ignored his pleading and scooped him up in his arms. The boy was barely eighteen, freshly recruited. He had his whole life ahead of him, and Ned would not just sit by and watch him bleed out and die. Besides...it was an order. His brother’s last demand.

Brandon kept shouting at him to go, and as Eddard clambered down the steps, his brother’s commands abruptly stopped.

Ned spared a glance behind him as the other troops helped Edmure into the truck. Hanging out the window was the upper half of Brandon’s body, riddled with bullets.

“Lieutenant Stark!” one of the boys called. “Get in, sir!”

Ned tore his gaze away from his brother’s corpse and sharply nodded. His uniform clung uncomfortably to his chest, wet with Edmure’s blood. He grabbed one of the lad’s hands and pulled himself in-

A sharp pain shot up his leg. He cursed under his breath, and before he could blink, another bullet landed in his thigh. Lieutenant Reed dragged him in before he could get shot at again, and the truck sped away as Ned’s eyes fluttered shut.

* * *

 

The fuzzy radio pulled him out of his sleep- _state of unconscious_ , more like, since he was still exhausted when he cracked his eyes open. His throat was uncomfortably dry and his tongue was thick in his mouth. It took several moments of flexing his hands before the numbness turned into painful pins and needles. At least he could move them around, now. His legs did not give in so easily.

Slowly, he sat up and took in the sight of the room. The walls were a bleach white, painful to look at with his sensitive eyes. On the wooden shelf, there were bouquets of dying flowers and get well soon cards. A faint ringing persisted in his ear. How long had he been out for?

A nurse came into the room, a pretty young thing. She gasped when she saw that he was awake, but her expression quickly became relieved. “Water,” he croaked out. She nodded and scurried back out. As he waited for her to come back, he tried to piece together the events leading up to his current state.

 _Brandon_. The image of his brother hanging limply out the window was burned into his mind, a permanent fixture. Whenever he so much as thought of his brother’s name, the image would appear in his mind, bright and sudden like a camera flash.

“My brother,” he said to the nurse when she returned. He took a long swig of water, draining most of the glass. “My brother. Brandon. Is he-?”

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant.”

He sighed and ran his finger along the edge of the glass. Brandon could not be saved, Ned knew that now. “He died for me,” he told the woman, although she probably heard the whole story already. “I shouldn’t have let him do that. God, how could I have left him?” He was tempted to throw the glass to the wall, watch it shatter like the windows had when they’d been attacked.

“I’ll get you some more water,” she murmured, plucking the cup out of his fingers.

Benjen’s signature leather jacket was strewn on the seat in the corner of the room. He must have gone to eat, for Ned figured it was around lunch time. He also saw Lyanna’s purse sitting on top of the nightstand, the zipper halfway undone. He had a responsibility now. He had to watch over his siblings.

“They’re in the cafeteria, by the way.” Ned hadn’t even noticed the return of the nurse. “I’m Catelyn. I’ll be taking care of you until your doctor gives you the okay to leave.”

“Where am I?” The hospital? It was too empty, too clean, to be a hospital.

“Rehabilitation centre. For your leg?”

He remembered the two bullet wounds, one in his thigh and one in his knee. “Oh yeah. Right.”

Catelyn smiled warmly, and he felt his heart flutter. “I’ll be back with your supper in a couple of hours. In the mean time…take it easy?” Ned nodded his head, keeping his eyes on the quilt lying on top of the medical issued blankets. He remembered seeing it on the couch back home… Ben and Lya must have brought it. It brings him comfort, as he clutches it tightly to himself.

“See you in a bit, Lieutenant.”

* * *

 

Ned lost track of the days when he was in the centre. _Sleep, eat, sleep_ had become his routine. It was hard to pay attention to the dates when you slept more than half the day away. He was loopy on morphine, which Benjen always made fun of him for. It was his job, as a little brother. Ned would laugh with him, but every time, sitting on the tip of his tongue was a sharp remark. _He doesn’t know what it’s like, to watch your troops die. To watch your brother die._

Over the week- at least, Ned _thought_ it was a week-, he talked to the pretty nurse named Catelyn. She would listen while he recounted memories of Brandon, would sit by him as he spoke of Ben and Lya. She seemed genuinely interested, leaning forward to hear every word that escaped his mouth. Of course, perhaps she was just being polite. She was constantly surrounded by traumatised soldiers; it was her job to listen.

She was replacing the bandages on his leg one day, quietly humming to the song on the radio. Ned had never gotten around to fixing the antennae, or just turning the damn thing off. Catelyn seemed to like it, so maybe that’s why he kept it.

“I’m always the one talking,” he said, counting the freckles on her nose and cheeks. “What about you? You got a family?”

“I think everyone has a family, Lieutenant.”

“Call me Ned.” _Brandon called me Ned_.

Cat hesitated, biting her lower lip. She reached out onto the nightstand and grabbed the roll of gauze. “I have a sister, and a father, and an uncle. I have a brother.” She finally looked up at him, her blue eyes wide and nervous. “You saved him, you know. Edmure Tully. Both of you came to the centre the same night. He watched you be rolled in on the stretcher, and he kept pointing at you. ‘That man saved me,’ he said. He’d tell anyone who’d listen.”

“How is he?”

“He’s fine.” She didn’t sound convinced. “Got out of the centre yesterday. He’s going back to live with my father.” Her eyes were full of tears, then, and Ned wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and tell her that everything was going to be alright. “God, I told him not to join the army. I told him he didn’t have to, that he should finish his studies and get a stable job…find a girl and settle down, you know? I swear, if you weren’t there that day…” Her bottom lip trembled, and she bolted out of the room without another word.

* * *

 

“Come on, Ned,” Ben encouraged, one hand on Eddard’s hip and the other cupping his elbow. “That’s it. You’ve got it!” Ned felt odd having a third foot, but the cane was necessary. He could eventually get rid of it, his doctor had said. But now, Ned had to relearn how to walk.

The centre’s garden was colourful and vibrant, reminding Ned of the flowers his mother and Lyanna used to grow. The air was fresh and it was heaven to be outside again. For far too long had Ned been cooped up in his room- two weeks, his younger brother had informed him-, and even longer still in the centre. The sun was high and beating down on them, and though Eddard preferred the cold, he gratefully basked in the sunlight.

He caught sight of a wisp of red hair and stumbled. “Easy there, tiger,” Benjen cautioned, steadying him. “Baby steps, remember? No need to rush into things. We have all the time in the world.”

That’s what Brandon had told him, once, when Ned had admitted that he wanted to continue his studies instead of joining the army. Brandon had always been headstrong and reckless. Looking back on it, Ned found it funny how Brandon had been the one to tell him to slow down.

“I think I can manage on my own for now, Benjen.” He patted his younger brother on the back. “There’s someone I want to see. Go and eat your supper; I’ll join you in a bit.” Benjen squeezed Ned’s hand and gave a nod. He stayed until Ned reached the bench along the pavement path before retreating inside the building.

“Catelyn,” he called, ignoring the pain in his leg as he sped up. “Wait for me. I want to talk to you.” He hadn’t seen her since she told him about Edmure. That had been almost a week ago.

She stopped by the tulips, but she looked as if she’d rather be anywhere else but there. “It’s good to see you. I trust your leg is doing better?”

“Much. Although I admit that I’ve missed seeing you around here.” His face cracked into a cheeky grin. “You should have been there when I first got up. Two steps and I fell right over. Benjen almost pissed his pants.” Catelyn smiled at that, and her eyes softened.

“They’re good kids. Your siblings, I mean. They were by your bed until you woke up. I don’t think I’ve seen guests stay at the centre for that long before.”

“I hope they didn’t cause you any trouble.” Ben and Lya had told him about the wheelchair races they were planning. Ned could only hope that they’d given up on the idea.

“Not at all. I think some of the nurses have even taken to Benjen.” They both chuckle at that. The college freshman, besting seasoned soldiers for the women’s affections.

“You’re not mad at me, are you?” he asked once their laughter died down. “It’s been a week. I must sound clingy, I know, but I was just-”

“Ned, don’t apologize for anything.” _She called me Ned_. “You saved my brother’s life. I was rude and that was unacceptable of me. I’m sorry.” Ned only nodded and, blindly, reached out and grasped her hand. Her eyes were impossibly blue, like the ocean and the sky, like Lyanna’s favourite roses, like Brandon’s mouth when they almost froze to death on the battlefield in the winter.

“I, um, I think I’m going to go back to my room. My leg’s starting to cramp.” He would find Benjen or Lyanna in the cafeteria, and they would help him up. Catelyn’s presence made him nervous and giddy, like a teenage girl on her first date. It was strange, and it was _wrong_. Just because he’d saved her brother’s life didn’t mean he was entitled to any of… _this_. He wasn’t even sure what _this_ was.

“I’ll help you upstairs. It’s the least I can do.”

All Ned could do was mutter his compliance.

* * *

 

Ned couldn’t stop shaking ever since his doctor told him the news. All he could think was _Catelyn Catelyn Catelyn_. It was fantastic news, and he’d been waiting to hear it ever since he woke up all those weeks ago. But a part of him never wanted to leave the centre. A part of him would always be with Catelyn.

Ben and Lya were packing his things up, and he’d said that he’d be gone for only a moment. He limped around the rehab centre, dependent on his cane, though far less so than he had been before. It was liberating, almost. His doctor told him that he would have to check in every month, but soon enough, he could ditch the cane. Soon enough, things would be back to normal…

He was lying to himself, he knew, but if he said it enough, perhaps he would come to believe it.

“Catelyn,” he sighed, relieved when he finally found her sipping coffee in one of the lounges.

She looked up from the book she was reading, and a grin instantly spread on her face. “Ned. I was wondering where you were. It’s not like you to miss your walk in the gardens.”

“I-I know. And I’m sorry. It’s just…” He took a few tentative steps toward her, the cane clicking on the linoleum floor. “I’m leaving. The doc checked me over, said everything was alright. Ben and Lya are packing my things as we speak.”

“That’s wonderful news, Ned.” She sounded anything but happy for him. She stood up and threw her coffee cup in the garbage. “I should probably get back to my station. My break’s almost over.”

“Catelyn, please don’t go.” He walked towards her, though he stumbled and he panicked for a moment. Catelyn’s hands tightly gripped his biceps to keep him from falling over. He let out a breathless chuckle, embarrassed but thankful all at the same time. “Thank you.” Before he knew what he was doing, he reached up and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Come visit me sometime. My father will love you.”

Her cheeks flushed red, and Ned was certain he’d never seen a sight as pretty as Catelyn Tully _blushing_.

He dug into his pocket and pulled out a small, crumpled piece of paper. In messy scrawl, he’d written his address and phone number. “Just give me a ring whenever you want, yeah?” She took it, nodding her head eagerly though her eyes were on the floor. He hoped she would call soon.

With the lightest of touches, he put a finger under her chin and tilted her head up to look at him. She was so close, he could smell her sweet breath, could feel its warmth across his cheek. “There’s a strict policy about having relationships with patients,” she joked, her smile coy.

“I’m not a patient anymore.” He pressed his lips to hers, soft yet demanding. He’d never  tasted anything half as heady and delicious as Catelyn Tully.

“You should probably go,” she murmured when they finally broke apart. Their kiss seemed to last both a split second and a lifetime. “I don’t want to keep you from your siblings.”

“Thank you. For everything. You’ve been…very kind.”

She laughed at his spluttering, and despite himself, he laughed, too.   


End file.
